My Approach

There is a common misconception that psychotherapy is a process in which an expert therapist gives advice to a novice client. In reality, the complete opposite is true. You are the expert of your own experience.

As your therapist, I meet you where you are with the utmost respect, compassion and curiosity about your lived experience up to this point, providing a warm, empathetic and safe environment where you can feel truly free and comfortable to be yourself without fear of judgement.

Everyone is entirely unique, and therefore there is no standard technique or process of working with clients. As an Integrative therapist, I have trained in a variety of approaches and draw upon these to tailor your therapy to suit you.

All the approaches and techniques I use are evidence-based and underpinned by neuroscience, specifically neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to rewire and reorganise.

Approaches I have received training in include:

Ericksonian Hypnotherapy
Person-centred/ Humanistic
Internal family Systems therapy
Focusing
Solution-focused therapy
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
Polyvagal and Somatic (Body) Therapy

My approach is guided by six key principles…

We Are Hard-Wired To Heal

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
― Carl R. Rogers

People have an intrinsic need for transformation – in fact we are hard-wired for growth and healing. When we feel safe, the drive to heal becomes more prominent. As your therapist, my role is to create the safety you need to heal, then guide and support you in strengthening your ability to relate inwards with compassion and gentle curiosity.

Healing transformation requires us to experience ourselves with clarity and authenticity. Through the use of Experiential therapy, I guide you to develop a clearer connection with your internal experience, helping you to better understand, accept and process your core emotions.

2. A Systems-based Approach to Body & Mind.

“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way” – Alan Watts.

We humans tend to rely on our thinking brains to solve everyday problems, but when it comes to issues like trauma and deep-rooted behaviours, a purely cognitive approach isn’t effective. This is because the root processes creating difficult emotions and behaviours are held in the middle part of our brains, which operates beyond our conscious control.

This part of our brain speaks in the language of moving images, sensory memories, and feelings. It is inextricably linked to our body via the nervous, adrenal and sensory systems, making up the felt-sense element of our emotions and feelings, for example when your heart races, your gut churns or you feel numb. By tuning in to your body’s signals in the present moment, we can target and change these unconscious clusters tied to the tangible symptoms you want to change.

I also help clients to develop and practise sustainable techniques like self-hypnotherapy, mindfulness, breathwork and grounding exercises to enable effective emotional regulation during times of stress or overwhelm. Strengthening these skills through practise can help us feel more secure, signalling safety to our brain and nervous system, leading neuroplasticity, reducing our reactivity in previously challenging situations.

3. The Subconscious Mind

“Healing the imagination with the imagination”
― William Hard

The subconscious mind drives around 95% of the processes that affect our behaviour, choices, emotions and bodily sensations. It works autonomously outside of our awareness, responding to our lived experience moment to moment processing and integrating.

Using trance, I can guide you into a relaxed, focused state where your conscious mind quiets, and the path to your subconscious mind opens. Here you can safely observe and access the beliefs, thoughts, and memories rooted to the distressing emotions and unhelpful behaviours you wish to change.

In this state, between deep relaxation and sleep, the subconscious becomes more receptive, enabling us to elicit your imagination to strengthen your resources, explore new ideas, and rewire unhelpful processes through a process called Memory reconsolidation. This process doesn’t erase memories, but instead targets the emotional responses attached to them to reduce their disruptive effects in our lives.

Through Internal Family Systems (IFS), I also guide clients to meet protective and burdened parts of themselves that hold these negative core beliefs with compassion. We can then heal them. In releasing the burdens they carry, we are simultaneously releasing the distressing emotional tensions and unhelpful behaviours previously attached to them. You can learn more about IFS here.

4. Shifting Focus to Solution-Thinking

“Where Attention goes energy flows” – James Redfield.

Often, we can become absorbed in our problems, striving to find solutions using our thinking abilities. This approach tends to keep the focus on what we want to avoid in our lives, stealing energy that could be channelled into manifesting what we want instead. As Steve de Shazer aptly wrote: “Problem talk creates problems, solution talk creates solutions.”

Numerous studies demonstrate that setting clear goals during therapy leads to successful outcomes. Through using solution-focused techniques and tapping into your subconscious mind during trance, I assist you in picturing how your life will look and feel once your challenges are overcome. Defining clearly how you desire to feel in your life enables you to then trace back, pinpoint obstacles, and break them into smaller, manageable parts. As your goals become more concrete and specific, they become more efficiently integrated with your powerful subconscious mind, which can then work more effectively to reach them.

5. Leading from Self

“We all have within ourselves the ability to heal the psychological and somatic wounds of the biographical, ancestral, and cultural past.” – David Grove.

Central to my approach is my belief we’re all born with an inner wisdom – our authentic Self. It’s like our own personal guide, bringing balance, peace, non-judgmental and transformative qualities into our lives, and whilst you might not feel like it right now, this internal wisdom contains everything you need inside you to heal.

Think of your authentic Self as your built-in compass for knowing what feels “right” and what doesn’t. When you’re connected to it, you feel safe, calm, connected, and full of curiosity and creativity.

As children, sometimes we experienced things we shouldn’t have, and not enough of what we should have, making us hide our true selves away. Even if it might feel like it’s far away at times, that deep sense of well-being is still there, undamaged, just waiting to shine through – like the sun behind clouds on a grey day. My job as your therapist is to help you tap into this inner strength and use it to reach your goals.

6. Experiencing to Heal

“When we know what we are feeling, we feel better” – Hilary Jacobs Hendel

Core emotions are the survival emotions that we’re born with. They tell us what we need, want, like or don’t like through physical sensations which help prepare us for survival responses. The core emotions are: Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, Joy, Excitement and Sexual excitement.

How we evolved to have Core Emotions

Fear – Fear is experienced when a tiger jumps out onto our path which equips the body by releasing the hormones and chemicals required to run as fast as possible.

Disgust – We evolved to feel disgust through foraging for food, if something toxic was eaten, disgust can set into motion the muscles in the GI tract to help us throw up.

We can’t think our way out of these core emotions: they must be experienced to be integrated, and our nervous system can return to a calm state once the danger has passed. While we no longer have literal threats like sabre-toothed tigers, the challenges of modern life are intricate and stressful. Our core emotions remain important indicators, guiding us on what is beneficial or harmful to us.

Sadly for a lot of us growing up, our core emotions were not always deemed acceptable by our caregivers, so protective parts of us came into being that blocked our core emotions from being expressed out of fear of overwhelm, rejection, physical or emotional pain.

These parts block authentic core emotions with inhibitory emotions which are Anxiety, Guilt and Shame, masking our authentic feelings.

Examples of how Inhbitory emotions can suppress Core Emotions.

Fear – If a child’s fear of the dark is met with dismissiveness as being silly, they will learn that it’s not ok to share their fear, and may have a part that blocks fear with anxiety that they cannot go to anyone to seek comfort or reassurance.

Anger – If anger evokes a child’s Father to become aggressive and abusive, they will learn to hide that anger.

Sadness – If a boy expresses sadness only to be told that “big boys don’t cry”, his brain will consider sadness a negative response and develop a part that is critical of sadness as this was rejected as being unacceptable.

Joy – If a child expresses joy in certain situations only to be met with a jealous older sibling’s disgust and rejection, they may learn that exhibiting too much joy may mean they are unloveable and will be abandoned.

Excitement – A young girl excited about learning a subject at school might be met with a teacher asking her to “tone it down”, therefore teaching the girl to inhibit excitement in the future.

In therapy, I guide you in identifying and connecting with your core emotions as they arise, resulting in you having more vitality and energy for living life as it happens. Through this work, you can access states of openness, tranquility, curiosity, and mental clarity more consistently in your daily life.

Contact me

To arrange a free 15 minute Zoom consultation, please message me via the form letting me know your availability and I will get back to you to arrange a good time. Alternatively, you can email or phone me. If I am unavailable, please leave me a message including when is best to call you back.

Email me:
sarah@sarahhammondtherapy.uk

Phone me:
07405 855 419

I aim to respond to enquiries within 24 hours, Mon-Fri between 10am and 7pm. If you are experiencing emotional overwhelm, please see my Resources & Helplines page.